We caught up with the ever-evolving rock/electro/pop/R&B outfit to try and wrap our head around their latest release, ‘Hollywood Blvd’.

For many young musicians, the genre of music you listen to is kind of like your sports team. You pretty much support that style and have zero time for anything else, especially when you’re going through your teenage years and the music you listen to is such a big part of your identity. Seriously if you didn’t have an emo, rap, metal or nu-metal phase as a 13-year-old, there may be something wrong with you…

Growing up, Sinclaire frontman Michael Cross was a metal fanatic and, like most angsty teenage metalheads, was pretty anti every other form of music. R&B and hip hop could never compare to his world of headbanging and shredding riffs, right? Thus, the “inferior” genres were put aside for a decade or so.

Now, having steered Sinclaire through a variety of genres over the past two years, Cross has taken aim at his younger self, releasing their most adventurous track yet: an R&B banger by the name of ‘Hollywood Blvd’. In a giant middle finger to the metal-obsessed little fucker that was, the track is unashamedly poppy, delightfully bouncy and full of 90s hooks – those kinds of hooks that you somehow still know having not listened to the track in 10 years (‘Jumping’ by Destiny’s Child, I’m looking at you).

To help us make sense of this new phase of Sinclaire we spoke to Cross about ‘Hollywood Blvd’ and his younger self. Check it out below and head here to follow them on Instagram:

First up, how has 2020 been for you guys as a band?

Honestly 2020 has been good for us as a band. I think a lot of bands struggled with covid (and rightly so, it was bloody tough) but for us it gave us time to figure out who we are as a band and build a sense of direction that I don’t think we ever had before this point. We started writing every single week with our good friend and producer, Nat Sherwood and basically just did whatever the fuck we wanted.

I think we used to be so obsessed as a band with confining ourselves to one genre when we hadn’t even explored what we were best at. So even though I don’t think we found a definitive direction, I think 2020 let us evolve faster than we ever could have imagined.

Congrats on ‘Hollywood Blvd’, the track has a real 90s boy band feel to it. What were you listening to when you wrote it?

Thank you! It’s certainly a big change for us. I don’t think I was really listening to nineties boybands at the time but I was listening to a lot of Brockhampton, Dominic Fike & local boiz – The Million. Honestly, just a lot of rap/R&B in general which led me to wanting to explore doing a more rhythmic flow rather than being so focused on singing. Not that this song isn’t melodic, it has a super catchy topline… It’s just got a hip-hop influence which is something we hadn’t tried before.

If ‘Hollywood ‘Blvd’ was a drink, what would the key ingredients be?

Yesss. I love this question! I thought about this for ages because I’m a big cocktail fan and I really didn’t want to go with an espresso martini because it seems generic but hear me out. It’s moreish, sweet & doesn’t last very long. It lures you in with this false sense of security and then before you know it you’re eight espresso martini’s deep, the alcohol has hit you HARD and you’re on the hunt for an ATM to withdraw $300 at 4am on a Sunday morning.

You’ve definitely mixed up your sound from what we’d heard on ‘Now I’m Ready To Start’, and lyrically document that shift from Simple Plan fan through to fame-hungry artist. Were you torn up writing this track? Or was it liberating to evolve your sound?

I definitely wasn’t torn up. Even though the track is about selling out it’s very tongue-in-cheek because I don’t see the song as actually selling out for us. My music taste genuinely has just changed to listening to these genres. When I was a kid I used to look at pop artists like Justin Bieber, Britney Spears etc. and think that they wrote this super “easy” music for the money. Which don’t get me wrong they make a lot of money, but the amount of skill that’s required to write a good pop song is something that I think a lot of people (including my younger self) underestimate.

What would you say to your adolescent self? What do you think they would say back?

I would honestly tell myself to stop playing guitar, start singing, stop writing metal music and get my head out of my ass. I was so obsessed with the technicality of playing these shred metal riffs and hating pop that I never listened to so many incredible artists. It’s something I really regret because I didn’t grow up listening to all the artists that I’m trying to take inspiration from now. As for what I’d say back… probably something along the lines of “bro, you’re a loser” hahah. I think I would have no respect for my older self purely because it would seem, on face value that I had sold out. I always thought I knew everything as most stubborn adolescent kids usually do.

How do you expect old Sinclaire fans to react to the tune?

Man, our fans are the best. As you mentioned we’ve changed a lot as a band since our EP and even with the three singles that we released this year they’re all so different from one another. But every time we release something our fanbase gets stronger, bigger and more engaged. They are honestly just so accepting of whatever we write. I think it is a really common mindset with younger fans, which most of our fan base is.

They are so diverse in what they listen to and rather than form a connection to a genre or a particular style of music they form this connection to the artists and their personality. And I see that a lot in myself too. I listen to so many different genres of music (which I know every person ever says) and the artists that I listen to the most are the ones that have a unique personality/attitude in their songwriting. I think it’s a really important thing for artists to show when they’re trying to form a fan base.

It’s the kind of tune that deserves a very visceral performance, particularly that outro. Do you have any plans to mix things up when you pay it live?

We are starting to think about life performances now actually and we’d love to do some crazy blood-red strobe lighting to really emphasise the ending. Maybe at some point if we had pyro even? That would be the dream.

Is ‘Hollywood Blvd’ a one-off or more of a taste of things to come? Will it be part of an EP/LP?

I think for now it’s a one-off in terms of style. Moving forward we really want to try and explore different styles as much as we can. All the songs we have in the back are quite different but they still feel like Sinclaire… who knows, it might end up on an EP but at this point I think singles are the way to go

There aren’t many acts around at the moment that have gone through three phases musically within a couple of years. Why is it important or natural for you guys to keep developing your sound?

It’s just transparency and honesty to who we are as songwriters. We didn’t set out with the idea of “hey, let’s be an indie rock band and then transition to pop” It just kind of… happened. The seemingly sporadic changes are probably a pretty accurate representation of my music taste if anything. At the start of this year I was so heavily into listening to mainstream pop like Lauv, Dua Lipa & The Weeknd but recently I’ve been listening to lots of hyperpop and emerging alternative artists that are doing more experimental/interesting things. Basically I just take inspiration from the things that I’m listening to at the time.

What have you got coming up in 2021?

I think the last sentence in the answer before is a good representation of what’s to come next. We’ve definitely got some hyperpop stuff in the works and some pretty alternative edgy shit. It’s thriving in the music industry at the moment and we want to be part of the movement. Maybe some shows too… who knows.